Historical Notes

The Utah State Historical Society library recently completed its microfilming of approximately a thousand pounds of Park City, Utah, municipal records. The records were presented to the library following the recent fire in Park City which inflicted extensive damage on the buisness district and emphasized the advisability of committing these data to duplication and safekeeping. Dating from the late nineteenth century, the documents include minutes of city council meetings, justice of the peace court records, certain police records, water system records, vital statistics, and fragmentary data from local churches.

The Historical Society's librarian has announced the accession of the Joseph Smith, Jr., estate papers from the county seat record depository of Hancock County, Illinois. Made available to the library through the generous assistance of F. Mark McKiernann, the collection contains over a hundred documents and deals with the years 1842-1851.

Another accession of interest to researchers and friends of the Historical Society is the Franklin Worrell and Thomas C. Sharp papers, also containing over a hundred documents. The records cover the Nauvoo years and promise new insight into the anti-Mormon agitation.

The Special Collections libraian of the Marriott Library, University of Utah, has announced several manuscript acquisitions certain to be of value to many students of Utah history. Included among them is the complete file on

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, consisting of business records, subscription lists, and manuscripts published and rejected. Also of interest are select diaries and journals of Joseph E. Johnson, journalist and printer who pioneered publications in Council Bluffs, Omaha, and St. George. Finally, two journals kept by Joseph C. Kingsbury, an early convert to Mormonism and close acquaintance of Joseph Smith, would be valuable resource material for research into early Mormonism and the westward migration of 1847.

The curator of Special Collections, Clark Library, Brigham Young University, has recently acquired the diaries of James E. Talmage and the diaries of David John.

The Mormon History Association has revealed plans for the publication of an annual Journal of Mormon History. Individuals interested in subscribing to the journal or submitting articles for publication should contact Dr. Richard Sadler, Department of History, Weber State College, Ogden, Utah.